I was born in Singapore in the 1950s. My father was British, a Master Mariner in the Merchant Navy, my mother a Filipina Doctor. I stayed in Singapore until shortly after independence when, to try and preserve my British nationality, my parents sent me to a boarding convent school for young ladies. 
As a young tomboy this was the most boring time of my life - whatever I wanted to do was never suitable for 'young ladies' and at the age of 13 I decided that the last thing I ever wanted to be was a lady - young or otherwise. By 18 I was culturally British and though my parents continued to work in Singapore I stayed in Britain taking on various jobs and then obtaining a degree in Agricultural Engineering. I went to the Philippines to work with their Ministry of Natural Resources. After 2 years I began to miss spring, decent chocolates and roast beef and returned to Britain where I joined the Civil Service to work on computers. 

I got married to my husband, another Civil Servant, 18 years ago. It was he who introduced me to table-top rallying when he entered the 'Cultivator' in the late 1980s (he got bored and I took over - he had to teach me to read a map!). My colleagues and myself were privatised about 8 years ago and the only difference this has made to my life is that I now know that Privatisation does not mean better or cheaper! I'm not a very ambitious person. My main ambition was to become a 'kept' woman but I have not succeeded in this. My current ambition is to live to draw my pension and to be in the top 10 of every TT until I am 100. Likes include growing Orchids and Cactii, walking, photographing wildlife and industrial architecture, painting white metal miniature figures mainly chaos or dark elves and a nice simple 'herringbone'. Pet hates are Politicians, some 'Suits' who believe they are God's gift to the industrialised nations, housework and trying to count churches or bridges along a route on a well marked and rubbed out OS map.

I've never competed in real rallies. I am medically unfit to drive! My husband was the rally driver.

I really don't know why I do the TT championship. I think it is to prove that I'm not going senile - I hit 50 a couple of years ago and tend to worry about things like this. 

Before the TT Championship, I set up MS_Outlook to remind me when each route cards is due out and one week before the answers are due back in. I usually pick up the route-card the night after it is published or least before the first weekend. I do the rally during my 30-minute lunch break (it is amazing how many colleagues who hardly ever speak to you will come up to tell you their life stories when you have cleared your desk, set up the map and are glaring at it for inspiration!) and one hour in the evening. If my husband goes to any Railwayana auctions I will go with him and do the TT there. I start at the beginning and go through each stage in order. If I haven't got a clue within an hour I go on to the next stage. Sometime during the first or early second week a crisis occurs or something crops up and I have to put the TT aside for a while. I then decide I better do some gardening and housework, visit my mother, look after the orchids and cacti and the next door neighbour and then MS_Outlook says 'TT results due within 7 days!' and all panic breaks loose. My understanding husband, also having seen the reminder, now knows he is due for a week of neglect! My nice easygoing character changes…. I get PST (pre submission tension) and become secretive, unreasonable, paranoid, grumpy and selfish! Anyway I struggle on and it seems to come together somehow. If I have time before I submit my results I try to check the answers to the questions in daylight when I can distinguish between white and yellow roads. After submitting my answers, that is it. I hate to say this but it is my doting husband who checks the results and lets me know how I get on! He is also a useful font of information if I need any details about real rallying. 

Michelle 'Mitch' Elizabeth Mary Fielding
May 8, 2005